Table of contents for May-Jun-Jul 2018 in Flightpath

The Nhill Aviation Heritage Centre (NAHC), after two years of intensive fundraising, has acquired Wirraway A20-722. Borg Sorensen restored the former RAAF CA-16 Mk.3 trainer after recovering its remains, along with remnants of A20-512 and A20-73, from a farm near Horsham in western Victoria in 1984. An exacting restoration culminated in the Wirraway, registered VH-CAC, flying again on 8 June 2002. The NAHC’s community liaison officer, John Deckert, said, “The centre launched its fundraising appeal in May 2016 with the hope of raising $300,000 for the Wirraway’s purchase. A very successful ‘Wheels for the Wirraway’ event was held at the Nhill Aerodrome in March and although the final target has not quite yet been reached, the NAHC Board has agreed that the time is right to bring the Wirraway to…

On 4 March 2018, the wreck and some aircraft of the American aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2) were found by a remotely operated vehicle from the Research Vessel Petrel three kilometres below the surface and 430 nautical miles (800 km) off the coast of Queensland. The expedition was funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who also owns the Flying Heritage and Combat Armor collection in Seattle, WA, USA. The Lexington was scuttled following the battle of the Coral Sea, where Lexington and the USS Yorktown’s aircraft fought against three Japanese carriers, in the first carrier versus carrier battle in history. It was the first time the Imperial Japanese forces suffered a permanent setback in their advances in the Pacific. However the Lexington had been crippled by Japanese bombs and torpedoes,…

The Stockton Field Aviation Museum, at Stockton Municipal Airport, roughly 100 kilometres south of Sacramento, California, is quickly becoming a haven for Lockheed’s famous family of twin engine, radial-powered aircraft. A C-60 Lodestar and a second PV-2 Harpoon (see page 36) will soon call the museum home. The Lodestar (serial 2322, NC6166), a Model 18-56 originally powered by two Wright R-1820-87 engines and one of just 36 built, has not flown for several years and is currently sitting at Yolo County Airport, just to the west of Sacramento. It is a Howard 250 conversion with, among other modifications, an extended nose and a far more comfortable interior. Taigh Ramey, principal of Vintage Aircraft, a specialist Beech 18 business based at Stockton (see Flightpath Vol.29, No.2), is leading the charge to…

The relatively dormant Australian Spitfire population has received a number of significant boosts recently, none more so than the acquisition of Mk.XVI TE392 which arrived at Archerfield Airport, Queensland, on 1 March for restoration by Performance Aero. It is an exciting addition to Brad Bishopp’s expanding Bishopp Aviation collection. The Spitfire has not flown for the past ten years and was acquired from the Lone Star Flight Museum (LSFM) in Houston, Texas. It was one of the museum’s aircraft damaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008, but is well on the road to recovery. Built at the Vickers Supermarine Castle Bromwich plant in 1945 as a LF Mk.XVIe and delivered to 9 Maintenance Unit at Gosford in June that year, TE392 was stored until February the following year. Although delivered to…

From June 1917, after the entry of America into the Great War, the U.S. Navy sent aircraft and personnel to Europe to work with the Allies. The principal task of the U.S. Navy crews operating in the English Channel and North Sea sectors was protection of Allied naval convoys from German submarines, and numerous bases were established along the coasts of Ireland, France, and England for this task. The Italian theatre also saw U.S. Navy personnel in combat operations against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The role of the U.S. Navy pilots in the Adriatic sector was different from their colleagues. The decision to deploy personnel from the U.S. Navy to Italy was taken in November 1917 following the Italian Government’s offer to train some fifty aviators of the Navy at the…

Hans Wiesman, well known as ‘The Dakota Hunter’, needs little introduction. His love for the Douglas DC-3/C-47 family stems from spending part of his childhood in Dutch New Guinea in the early fifties. Regular air travel there largely came in two forms – Douglas or Consolidated. Hans was very young when he experienced his first water take-off in a Catalina and he’s been obsessed with the type ever since. He was an integral part of the famed Catalina Odysseys of the early 1990s and has just released a coffee table book featuring many images from those epic journeys. The book, 80 Years, A Tribute to the PBY Catalina, as the title suggests, is also heavily illustrated with wartime and post-war images and the author has been kind enough to allow…

The Myanmar Defence Services Museum is a massive complex of display buildings a few miles outside the new capital of Naypyidaw. Opened on 18 March 2012, it is probably the largest museum complex in the world. Set in more than 600 acres (243 hectares), it covers all aspects of the armed forces, as well as much of the military’s involvement in shaping the infrastructure of the country, and even domestic manufacturing industries ranging from prefabricated houses to soccer balls! A Tiger Moth is on display in the large entrance halls of the Air Force section, with a de Havilland Vampire in another large hall, and several gliders, together with a Thrush Commander (used for eradicating drug producers’ poppy fields), in another. Sadly, the majority of the aircraft are exhibited outside.…

The Bengalla Warbirds over Scone air-show was held on Sunday, 25 March, in the Upper Hunter Region of New South Wales. Hosted by local war-bird business Vintage Fighter Restorations, it featured one of the most impressive warbird line-ups assembled in quite some time. The huge crowd was treated to displays featuring aircraft representing the Great War era to present day civil and military aviation. The absolute highlights were, as expected, the W.W.II machines with a Spitfire, Kittyhawk, Wirraway and Avenger joined by two CAC-built Mustangs and a pair of Harvards. However, the aircraft that particularly drew the crowd’s attention were the Hawker Hurricane and FW 190. It was the first time the two fighters had flown together for a public display in Australia. Internationally, such a formation pairing is rarely…

The PBY-6A Catalina (VH-PBZ, ‘Felix’) from the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) was to be the star attraction at the Rathmines Catalina Festival in October last year. However, it experienced engine problems en route with the crew making a precautionary landing at Rutherford, near Maitland. The incident led to an extended stay for the aircraft as the team from HARS began the long and difficult task of changing an engine far from home. Finally, on 10 February, all was completed and the Catalina and its crew made their way down the coast back to Albion Park. If you love the type, see our colour feature on page 44 for a look at eighty years of the venerable Cat.…

A little known restoration project occupies what was once a RAAF Base gymnasium. Alan Penhall, the curator of the Friends of the Anson Museum, is in the process of restoring an Avro Anson Mk.I to static condition. He is driven to highlight the significance of the former RAAF Base at Ballarat, the Anson aircraft, and the aircrew who trained in them. The RAAF formed 1 Wireless Air Gunners School in 1940 and Ballarat remained an active base for the next 21 years. Post-war, Ballarat became the RAAF School of Radio until 1961 when it moved to Laverton. At its peak, there were 72 Ansons operating out of the airfield. Fifty-two of them were disposed of for a mere £15 each in 1948. The museum’s restoration of the Anson has been…

Vintage Fighter Restorations (VFR), at Scone, New South Wales, is making excellent progress on two Supermarine Spitfires. All going well, both may fly again this year. In the past six months the wings from MH415, an HF Mk.IXb, were dismantled, rebuilt and re-skinned. They are now largely completed and due to enter the paint shop in early April. Given the provenance of this aircraft, it is important that as much of the original material is preserved and, as the condition of the aircraft was exceptional upon arrival, this has mostly been possible with the exception of the main wing spars which have been replaced. The structurally complete fuselage was fully painted in its original scheme, as delivered to 129 (Mysore) Squadron RAF at Hornchurch in August 1943, in time for…

Hello Rob, I have been trying for quite a few years to identify the Tiger in the attached photos taken at Luskintyre in 2007. It was Ray Windred’s personal machine that he was going to restore as a sprayer for airshows. I was told that, after his passing, it went to a restorer in northern NSW. The AHSA have been unable to assist and Geoff Goodall recalls that it was one of the Trayning, WA, Moths. Can any Flightpath reader identify and provide more about this Tiger please? I am a subscriber to Flightpath and am always impressed with the range of material you put into each issue. Best regards as always, Ian McDonell Thanks Ian, with the help of Geoff Goodall and Mel Davis, we can confirm it was…

Bartlett was a member of the 475th Fighter Group (FG) whose pilots started arriving in Brisbane from July 1943 onwards. On 14 September, Bartlett delivered a brand new P-38H from Eagle Farm (Brisbane) to Dobodura, the 475th’s first forward New Guinea base. The first eleven days of September were comparatively quiet for the unit. The weather was suitable for operations on only seven of these days, during which the group’s Lightnings escorted Mitchell bombers on barge hunts along the northern New Guinea coast. However, things took a more serious turn on 11 October when the pilots and operations officers were summoned to a special briefing. Under the cover of a drab tent at Dobodura, they were informed that their next target would be Rabaul. This was the big league. More…

Mostly forgotten today, the Super-marine Southampton was a remarkably successful inter-war military aircraft. In 1927, two wooden-hulled Mk.I Southamptons, S1158 and S1159, were shipped to Melbourne, Australia, aboard the SS Ferndale, with the first flight of the two occurring in May and June of 1928 respectively. At the time, they were the largest aircraft the RAAF had ever operated, and they had had a new building, the Seaplane Hangar erected for them on the Southern Tarmac area of RAAF Point Cook by Port Philip Bay. Initially, they retained their RAF serials but were allocated Australian serials A11-1 (S1158) and A11-2 (S1159) and were assigned to the newly formed Coastal Reconnaissance Flight at Point Cook. The RAAF’s long and successful use of the Southampton didn’t start well, with the first aircraft,…

On Saturday, 3 June 1944, 78 Wing had been detailed to cover shipping in the Biak Island area that was supporting the Allied landing carried out there a week earlier. The orders for the day were that 75 Squadron would provide the early morning patrol and would be relieved by 80 Squadron around mid-morning. This unit would then be replaced by 78 Squadron in the early afternoon. However, changes to this arrangement were necessary as a strike was required in the morning. The later model P-40N Kitty-hawks of 80 Squadron, capable of carrying a larger bomb load than most of the 78 Squadron aircraft, were detailed for the operation. Consequently, 78 Squadron would take over from 75 Squadron mid-morning, leaving 80 Squadron to do its fighter-bomber work. In the week…

The Sri Lanka Air Force Museum was established in 1993 at the Ratmalana Air Base to the south of Colombo. Modernised in 2008, it remained closed to the public for several years until recently. Open every day except Monday, the museum has a number of rare aircraft on display and most have been restored to a high standard. The older aircraft are kept in a fairly well lit hangar while the rest are displayed outside. The Air Force was formed as the Royal Ceylon Air Force in 1951. The first aircraft were de Havilland Chipmunks and these were followed by Boulton Paul Balliols and Airspeed Oxfords. A transport fleet was built around de Havilland Doves and Herons. Tiger Moth CX123 and some of the Chipmunks are maintained in airworthy condition.…

The 41st National Fly-in of the Antique Aeroplane Association of Australia celebrated ‘80 Years of the NAA T-6/ Harvard’. The annual event at Echuca in northern Victoria, on the New South Wales border, was held over the weekend of 16-18 March. Unfortunately the event only attracted three examples of North American’s legendary advanced trainer. The type’s numbers, as with the whole event, were affected by a number of factors, not least being the appalling wet weather up and down the east coast of Australia. This kept potential attendees on the ground and their aircraft well and truly secured. With only one runway at Echuca, the excessively strong crosswinds predicted for the last day of the event also kept numbers down and forced numerous early departures on the Saturday. Further, a…

On 8 February, the RAAF Amberley Aviation Heritage Centre (AAHC) relocated two historic aircraft from the Fleet Air Arm Museum at HMAS Albatross, New South Wales, to RAAF Base Amberley, Queensland. Wing Commander Clive Wells, OIC RAAF AAHC, said the movement plan was conducted over four phases starting in October 2017 when a small, dedicated group of Reservists and members of 6 Squadron RAAF were tasked with preparing Douglas Dakota A65-86 for road transportation. Even with the removal of control surfaces, propellers, antennas and other external components, the load was still almost eight metres wide and five metres high on its trailer. This aircraft entered service with 35 Squadron RAAF in April 1945 at Amberley and, after 53 years of operational service, was retired before being delivered to the Royal…

The new Maryborough Military Aviation Museum has acquired CAC Wackett A3-87 from the Beck Museum in Mareeba. The Wackett trainer was used in great numbers at Maryborough to train wireless operators/ air gunners during W.W.II. This particular Wackett served with various RAAF flying schools and, in 1947, was sold to J.T. Brown and registered VH-AJY. Its purchase follows the news that the museum has secured a lease on a parcel of land at Maryborough Airport on the very spot that was used for the headquarters of 3 Wireless Air Gunner School. The museum is hoping to be able to bring the aircraft up to display standard and is actively searching for parts to complete this exceptionally rare aircraft.…

The Wings Museum, based in Sussex, is embarking on Phase Two of its Bell P-63C Kingcobra restoration. The long-term plan is to restore the aircraft as a static ground running exhibit. It is likely it will be the only complete example of its type in the UK (see Flightpath Vol.28, No.4) Two brothers, Daniel and Kevin Hunt, are the passionate founders of the museum that displays an eclectic array of items. The jewels in the crown are the aircraft that make up the ‘Ghosts of the Tundra’ exhibition. The Kingcobra is one of six P-63 fuselages and four wing sets recovered from the Russian Kuril Islands, just to the northeast of Japan, in 2001 by the Hunt brothers. They also retrieved a Nakajima B5N2 ‘Kate’ fuselage and wing section, a…

In August 2017 I was fortunate enough to be travelling as part of a small group through the north of Papua New Guinea. I was able to make a brief stop in the township of Aitape during this time. As many readers will be aware this is close to the site of the former Tadji aerodrome, a site of significance in the history of the RAAF during W.W.II as it was from here that much of the air support provided to Australian ground forces participating in the Aitape-Wewak Campaign was launched. Today, the airfield and the associated relics that remain stand as a testament to those who took the war to the Japanese in its later stages from this remote pocket of the South-West Pacific. As an archaeologist with a…

Dear Rob, I’m in the throes of writing about Robert Baudin’s rather low-level flight over Sydney in Arthur Napper’s Auster in 1969. Does anyone have photographs either of the incident, or of Baudin, his two Austers at Bankstown, or has Baudin’s aerial shots of the construction of the Sydney Opera House, Long Bay Gaol and Circular Quay (his company was Australian Air Photos - these days they’re ‘courtesy Hornibrook Ltd’)? Also, I wonder if anyone knows Arthur Napper, the air traffic controller at Mascot (a Mr Hook, I believe), the ATC at Bankstown, or knew Fred Krahe, or even (long shot) actually knew Baudin? Pilot N.W. Sullivan was flying a Qantas DC-3 that day. Also in the air was John Laffan with the DCA’s senior examiner, Russ Evans. Any contact…

With the development of the PV-2 Harpoon, Lockheed had probably pushed a design that could trace its roots to the mid-1930s as far as it could. Admittedly, the end of hostilities and the unceasing rush of technological advances would have put an end to the family line, but the Harpoon would have held its own for a time, particularly if the war with Japan had continued beyond 1945. Indeed, the type saw long-term post-war use in the agricultural and aerial fire fighting industries. Lockheed went on to perfect the maritime patrol aircraft, but today, despite several superb flying examples that catch the public eye, the Harpoon remains a little-known exponent of the role. The Harpoon was a redesign of the PV-1 Ventura, itself a development of the Model 18 Lodestar.…

The first ‘pull off’ Southampton jumps were made by Squadron Leader Paddy Heffernan (who ran the courses) and Flight Lieutenant Don Carroll, who had also undertaken parachute training in the UK. Of his 24 August 1932 drop, Heffernan recalled: “We worked our way along the wing, through the bracing wires to the outer strut. Here we stood with our backs to the way we were going and leant against the strut until we reached jumping height. I think that this time was the worst part of the trip, because during the take-off you could feel every movement of the wings and you felt sure that they were going to fall off … As we got over the southern boundary we got the signal to ‘Go’ … so we pulled our…

More than a year later, in July 1943, the airframe was paraded through Sydney’s streets on a flatbed truck accompanied by a sign that proclaimed it was a ‘Jap Zero Fighter shot down by U.S. Air Force’. This was not the case, however, and the truth behind how ‘Zero’ (tail code V-110) fell into Allied hands is extraordinary. Three key factors were behind its loss: a Mitchell bomber with an unusual nickname, the unpredictable New Guinea weather, and a faulty Japanese oxygen regulator. Meagre Allied air power was still defending Australia in April 1942. Curtailing and monitoring Japanese shipping remained a priority, for it was shipping that maintained enemy supply lines and facilitated invasions. Port Moresby was clearly next on the list after Lae and Salamaua so, as part of…

The Peninsula Aero Club held its biennial airshow on 11 March. Themed ‘War & Peace’, the event showcased both warbirds, military and general aviation from various eras. For the first time the show was outsourced and the organisers collaborated with Paul Bennet Air-shows to manage the flying display. Enhancing their involvement, PB Airshows also brought down their CAC Wirraway, Grumman Avenger and SkyAces aerobatics team. A major drawcard this year was the first pairing of Tyabb’s two resident CAC Mustangs, as they had not displayed together before. The Temora Aviation Museum, a notable supporter, displayed its Lockheed Hudson, Spitfire Mk.VIII and CAC Boomerang. Regular TAM pilot and another longtime Tyabb supporter Doug Hamilton also flew an impressive display in his P-40N Warhawk. Other highlights included a three ship formation of…

Victoria’s Yarram Airfield holds the remarkable distinction of conducting the first operational military flights in Australia. These flights were carried out by an F.E.2b searching for a German raider ship in Bass Strait in 1918. Yarram Aero Club commemorated this centenary on 17 March with a perfect blue Autumn backdrop. The airshow, supported by local community groups and volunteers, attracted some 2,500 people. The show was organised by Yarram Aero Club in conjunction with Paul Bennet Airshows which showcased its stable of aerobatic displays along with its CAC Wirraway, Grumman Avenger and T-28 Trojan. Local Latrobe Valley-based Jeff Trappett came to the party with his rarely seen Avon Sabre and another of his rides, a 1944 C-47 painted in a Vietnam era ‘Spooky’ gunship scheme. From nearby RAAF East Sale…